Bedford Goes Green To Show Support For Senior Class Cancer Victim

Bedford Now photo by KIM BRENT
Bedford's cheerleaders wore special t-shirts complete with positive messages and a green ribbon for a "green out" at last week's regional football game in a show of support for senior Lauren Yates, who is battling cancer.

With the heartbreaking loss of two of their classmates, freshman Kelsey Koepfler and senior Colton Durbin, not far behind them, the Bedford High School student body proved their unity once again Friday night by turning up at the regional cham­pionship football game at Bedford Community Stadium dressed in something other than their school colors.

This week, the student section wore green in honor of Bedford se­nior Lauren Yates, who found out last week she has a severe and ag­gressive form of bile duct cancer. Band members pinned green rib­bons to their uniforms, football players placed green stickers on their helmets and rest of Lauren’s classmates sported “Love Your Life” sweat shirts in her honor.

“I’m so blown away by these kids,” Jamie Yates, Lauren’s mother of Lambertville, said. “If prayers could cure cancer, we would have beaten this already.”

Doctors found a tumor on Lau­ren’s liver back in June. They re­moved it, along with portions of her liver and intestines. She was believed to be cancer free until last Thursday, when during a routine scan, it was discovered the cancer had returned and spread. Now, Lau­ren’s family and doctors are working out a course of treatment.

“She’s one of those kids who have always pulled through,” Mrs. Yates said. “She wants to fight.”

“Fight like a girl” has become Lau­ren’s motto since her diagnosis. Her closest friends printed the phrase on ,the back of the sweat shirts they have been selling to raise money for the Yates family. The front of the sweatshirt reads “ Love Your Life” – another of Lauren’s encouraging slogans. The L’s are made to look like traditional cancer support ribbons, one in green for bile duct cancer and one in blue for teen cancer.

Countless Bedford students bought the sweat shirts this week during their lunch hours. Those who didn’t were encouraged to wear green to Friday’s football game to show their support.

“ Everyone has gotten so much closer because of everything that has happened,” Bree Elwartoski, 17, a senior at Bedford, said. “It’s clear that everybody has your back.”

Bree and Lauren have been best friends since they were first- grad­ers at Monroe Road Elementary in Lambertville. The two have partici­pated in dance, choir and theater programs in Bedford Township for years. They planned to go to Disney World one day and audition to play Disney princesses with the amuse­ment parks.

Some of the funds raised will hopefully be used for a Yates family trip to Disney, in addition to going to helping cover hospital expenses, Chere Elwartoski of Petersburg said.

About 25 choir students visited Lauren at the hospital this week to bring her a “Love Your Life” sweat shirt and hundreds of letters of sup­port from her peers. They also deco­rated the room with colorful signs and pictures.

Mrs. Yates said the show of sup­port from her classmates has lifted Lauren’s spirits. Mrs. Elwartoski added that Lauren has remained very positive, regularly sending out tweets and Facebook posts giving her friends updates and declaring how thankful and blessed she feels.

“ I think she just realized how many friends she actually has,” Mrs. Yates said. “I’m so proud of these kids. If they’ve learned anything from what they’ve gone through, it’s that they have a lot of power.”